New Festival at Riverside Museum is set to be wheely fun

Laura Sturrock

The Riverside Museum in Glasgow is hosting a Festival of Wheels and the Blue Light Festival across three weekends in September.

Following the outstanding success of last year’s Blue Light emergency services event, which attracted record visitor numbers of over 20,000 people across one weekend, the museum has expanded the event and introduced a new festival celebrating wheels of all descriptions.

People can go along with their roller skates, skateboards and BMX bikes and any other wheels they can find!

Soul music superstar Candi Staton and Studio 54 legend Jellybean Benitez are set to roll into town as Riverside prepares to host its first outdoor roller disco on Saturday and Sunday, September 3 and 4, 10am-1pm, in partnership with Electric Frog.

Two days of back-to-back soul, disco and funk will continue when popular DJs Todd Terje, Dimitri from Paris and Jazzie B of Soul II Soul fame take to the decks.

The second weekend will see Riverside and Clan Skates join forces to bring skate and BMX enthusiasts an incredible array of lessons, pro-skater and bmx-biker demonstrations and the opportunity to show off their skills on a specially constructed ramp. Little ones just finding their wheels can try their hand, or feet with mini skateboard and BMX lessons – even if it’s raining as it’s all undercover.

On September 17 and 18 representatives from all of Scotland’s Emergency Services will come together at Riverside Museum to be part of the second Blue Light Festival, the biggest display of its kind in Scotland.

With more than 60 different vehicles attending, visitors can discover more about the work front-line services do – or simply delight in sounding the siren. Climb aboard the bikes, cars, trucks, engines and boats and discover the equipment used by those people who keep us safe. There will also be the opportunity meet some of the highly trained staff that deal with a wide range of emergencies across the country.

The popularity of last year’s ‘Blue Light’ event, which welcomed the largest number of visitors to Riverside in one weekend since it opened in 2011, prompted organisers to expand this year’s event and invite more emergency services to take part. There will also be a FREE kid’s zone, complete with fairground rides, inflatable slides, bouncy castles, face-painting and craft activities.

The Summer Beach at Riverside will remain in place throughout all of the above events.

For more information and to book tickets for the roller disco, other events free with no booking required, visit www.glasgowmuseums.com.